Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Altered By Mom: Toronto Mike'd #1612

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

In this 1613th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike catches up with Gina Kennedy and Devon Lougheed from Altered By Mom, hears their new single Sucking on a Lemon, and learns about their new journey. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

We can sing along if you guys want. I was worried I was going to start rapping, which I may not recover from. It's okay. I can always mute your mic. If it's no good. That might just be a good policy in general. I don't know. I can always mute your mic. That might just be a good policy in general. Welcome to episode 1613 of Toronto Miked. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery.

A fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta! Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Building Toronto Skyline, a podcast and book from Nick Gainey's and Ridley Funeral Home,

pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today making their Toronto mic return is Gina Kennedy and Devin Logheed. Is that how you say it? You know my whole family says it differently so I would say Lowheed but I'm never mad about it. Did I get that right the first time Lowheed? Yeah let's not even wind back. You got it right that's amazing. As if I'd go to check and see but you could just tell me what I want to hear. Okay That's right. You two are altered by mom How you doing? We're so good. It's so good to be back and back in the basement. Thanks for having us

Gene are you only here because you get another lasagna from poma pasta be honest with me. I can handle it It's not the only reason but it was person. Oh, I have a question. Devon, Gina and Devon, you're doing well. Yeah, I can't believe how well I'm doing. You're like Corey Hart. You wear your sunglasses at night. I do. I do. Jean, are those sunglasses because they're tinted?

They are sunglasses. They used to be mine. Yeah. I wish I could say that they're like to block the blue light, but I'm going to say they like to block the blue light, but I'm gonna say they're to block any bad vibes. You know, you're too young to remember the ad where the guy on, I don't know, he's in like Long Branch. Did I say Long Branch? Long Beach. He's in California and he's walking like the boardwalk and he starts rapping. Like you were gonna rap there, but he raps about Blue Blocker. Have you ever seen this ever encounter this on YouTube? Maybe my blue blockers.

Yeah. Listen to you. Me. And he does some like Muhammad Ali, like I thought like a fly, like a butterfly, sting like a bee. And he's talking about the blue blockers. And that's what I thought of when I saw your blue blockers. And then I thought of Corey Hart. And now I'm thinking about you guys. But what I want to know off the top here, we have a lot of ground to cover.

I got music and it's going to be amazing. But and we're going to crack open Great Lakes beer in like two seconds. Who am I chatting with on Blue Sky? So here's the thing. So I DM on Blue Sky with the official Altered by Mom account, which is altered by mom dot whatever. And I actually don't know, like when I'm writing, am I, am I writing Devin? Am I writing Gina? Would I write one differently than the other? Like, I don't know, but I'm now gonna find out who have I been chatting with.

Well, the fun of it all is that all of our accounts, you never know who you're talking to. But I legit can't tell. Sometimes I imagine I'm messaging Gina, and then sometimes it's Devin. Who do you think it is? Well, Mike, if I had, like you said, Mike, who do you think you've been chatting with?

I think I've been chatting with Devin. That's actually a really good guess. It's funny, most of them- I got a 50-50 shot over here. That's right. So most of our social stuff, I would say Gina handles, but I have access to it, most of it, and will just help myself sometimes,

usually to Gina's chagrin. But blue sky is the one area that I have free range. It felt like a devon exchange, but not like definitively so. Yeah. Yeah. Which is why most of our socials are about the band, our music, the things we're doing like that. And our blue sky is about complete nonsense. So, yeah, well, OK, well, I sensed a bit of Devin-ness going on there,

but then I always wondered, oh, it's interesting when they're messaging somebody, they don't put dash D or something. So, but not that it matters. Like it doesn't matter, but you're two individuals in a duo and I'm like, I'm chatting with the band, but still it's, I thought, oh, I don't know. Like, even as I was waiting for you guys to drop by,

I'm like, I don't know if I've been chat for days and weeks I've been chatting with somebody am I chatting with Gina and my chatting with Devin. I was just curious to find out Yeah, we got to keep the mystery alive. Okay, so all all that flirting was with Devin I was going to say are you disappointed? Where did the nude pics come from? You know? Wow The internet provides My mind is blown here

Okay So let me tell people about your first appearance and then we're going to crack open our Great Lakes and then we're going to get into it here. I'm really happy to have you back here. Yeah, us too. December 2023, that was like a titch over a year ago you guys were here. In fact, you were just chatting with my youngest and she was excited because I told her rock stars were coming by and then she wants, usually she's at school. So there's not too many recordings when she's not at school and she heard excited because I told her rock stars were coming by and then she wants usually she's at school so there's not too many recordings when she's not at school and she heard there was a girl rock star and she got very excited and you saw she came down and ignored Devon completely. Which I did not care for

but I can deal. But then I Gina said something about how she had met Morgan earlier like last year and then I realized oh you guys must have done an evening recording last time too. Yeah, I guess we did. Okay. So that's very unusual. But you guys have like jobs or something? Like what's going on here? We just decided to do this at night. Okay. So December, 2023, it was episode 1172. And now we're at six. That's what am I doing? I'm working. Wait a minute. 23 Oh, two, two years ago. I said one year, right? What year is this?

Yeah. What's going on over here? Happy new year, Mike. I'm just trying to figure out how did I do so many episodes in one year, but it was two years. Okay. December, 2023 in this 1,172nd episode of Toronto Mike, Mike chats with Gina Kennedy

and Devin Loheed about all things altered by mom. I was sweating that. Their relationships with, and these are the following people we talked about, so maybe here we get a little update on all these people. Sky Wallace. Are we still good with Sky? Of course. Yeah. Trying to create some like Toronto indie conflict. No, we just went to their wedding. Who married whom? I married Sky. And I also married Sky. That's legal now, I heard.

OK, like a throuple. OK, so I'm jealous of all of you. Yeah. My goodness gracious. In Trump's Canada, we can do anything we want. That's right. I don't know if that's funny yet. It feels too, Regina?

Too much, I agree. It's too close. Because I get a lot of these jokes. So I don't know if that's funny yet like it feels too Because I'm getting a lot of these jokes I Brad Jones from Ridley Funeral Home was here to record his podcast really he made a joke about 51st state I don't find it funny at all like it's just maybe at one day that like meant one day soon Maybe when this is all like ah, we love you Canada. You're our best friend or whatever You're you know, I'm just goofing on you and then I'll be like Oh that's kind of funny But this close to it all like I just don't trust any of it. So like I don't find it funny Elizabeth They will protect us all she's gonna get her KFC knife at the border

Beat them with like hockey sticks and guitars. Yeah Not funny get out of my basement or something like that. But not funny. Get out of my basement. Okay, so Sky Wallace got married? For real? Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

And Sky Wallace married, and was this in Toronto? Yeah, sort of. It's just outside. I wonder how much, I mean, like I know all this info, but I wonder how much I should be giving away. You're not giving a SIN number up or whatever. Yeah, I have that too. Hers is three, five, and then it's a bunch of six nines,

which is very funny. Whoa. Yeah, she got married at a lovely spot that was meaningful to her family with lots of family history. And yeah, it was wonderful. It was really great. I enjoyed dressing up.

I enjoyed dancing. Well, you know, I'm pissed, because where was my invitation? I was so good to Sky Wallace, early in Sky's career. I know, goodness gracious. I know goodness gracious You know what? I think the trick was just a bump into her like the week before the wedding I think he might have gotten an invite. All right big sky Wallace fan here So we talked a lot about sky then we're talking about sky now and the reason I met sky Wallace is actually the same reason

I met you guys. Oh is Ron Hawkins. Yeah, the legend was Ron at this wedding. Ron was not at the wedding They had a show. Yeah. So. The Lowe had a show, a Lowe show. A Lowe show. Were they in Buffalo? Possibly, right?

Probably, right? Named after the band. Right. L-O-W. Now, Devin, you did work with Ron, right? That's right. I worked with Ron on an EP that he did that I really like called Trash Talkin' at the Speed of Sound. I too really like it. Great tunes on there. I think you probably sing some.

But you have to like it. Like, what if it was shit? Oh, I definitely don't have to. Yeah. Gina has what we call the East Coast honesty, you know, and it's good because I actually like it because if she's telling me she likes something, it means she really does. Like she's blunt. Is that what that means? East Coast honesty?

I do know how to be polite. I just sometimes think that people need to be polite. You don't feel you need to be polite with people who you care about? Well, it's more that like I would want to know the truth most of the time. So I feel like I have a good part of it. Was that like if you have a booger in your nose? Yeah, you got a bad mic case. You need your partner, whatever. How would you describe Devin? He's a partner? He's a guy with a booger in his nose.

He would tell you though. He would tell you. Is that what you're telling me right now that I have a booger? Mike was saying it. Well now that I know I've been chatting with Devin all this time, I'm going to tell him if he has a booger in his nose. We're tight now. Then you can be better friends. So Ron Hawkins, who is the patron saint of Toronto Mike is how I met you guys because Roddy Comer had a Elma combo thing. Yeah, that's right. That's right. I'm plug North North Yeah, now I believe usually happening at the Rivoli rivoli hey sometimes at the camera house, but definitely unplug North is sweet. I think the low has done another 12 records or something Yeah, they are they are prolific. They're always pumping out And who else? Good

Night Sunrise? Yeah, we just wrapped a tour with them. Okay, they're not on the list. I just remembered they were on that bill and they've been over since you guys were last on. Nice. So you're still tight with them. We're so tight with them. We just wrapped up a four-day tour and we got to know all kinds of stories about each other, which was great. I want to hear all of them right now. Yeah. One of them is a really good kisser. I can attest to, uh, it's David and Vanessa, I assume is a really good kisser, but I haven't, you know, we jumped in. I haven't sampled. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. You and Vanessa jumped into a lake in Collingwood, Collingwood in December.

Yeah. We played the show and then in the morning, Vanessa and I and her neighbor, Ben, who's a radio host as well, got undressed and jumped in the lake. Aren't you afraid your heart will stop? Like sometimes, I mean, I don't know how cold it was that particular day, but I sometimes see people like, I don't know,

Polar Bear Club or whatever, and they jump in Lake Ontario here, and I don't know, it's minus five or minus 10 or something. And I think, yeah, I would do that because I feel like I'm the kind of guy would do that but then I'm afraid my heart will stop I mean there's all kinds of reasons why your heart would stop. And you know come what may at this point. My heart might stop by the end of this episode. So before I drop this next name though because there's actually like an update on this next name I see listed here that I wrote this

two years ago over two years ago I'm cracking my Great Lakes and we're all gonna do it okay so right in front of the mic so Devin and I because we're so like-minded we have the same IPA it's called burst and there's a logger a premium logger that Gina's got okay you ready okay cheers to altered by mom did you get more ink since you were last here Gina I did we're here two years ago oh yeah she got more ink I you were last here, Gina? I did. Were we here two years ago? Oh yeah, she got more ink. I'm one of them, I can show you for sure. You can show me all of them, to be honest. I'm fine with it.

I'm fully unemployable now. I got a neck tattoo. Oh yeah, so you're not, who is it, somebody smart, the guy from Stray Cats, I think he said, you gotta be able to cover your ink with a suit so when you're before the judge, the judge can't see your ink and then give you a harder sentence.

Sorry, Judge. I'm going to the pen. But are you not done? Like, are you going to keep going? I mean, maybe it's, it depends on how well the band does. It's an expensive hobby. We're going to get into that. Yeah.

We're going to get in. We'll do like a crowdfunding to get you inked up here. Okay. Here's the name because there's a big development with this name and I'm wondering if you have any insight into this. I've been waiting two years to hear from you on this. Okay, because I know Gina was close of this band, played of this band possibly when there was Ginger Ale involved. Who knows? Mono Whales have called it quits since your last visit to the basement.

Indeed. Okay, Mono Whales, like they would be played on Indie 88. Uh huh. Is Indie 88 playing Altered by Mom? Well, we just got a new record that we're about to drop. So hopefully very soon they will be. Okay, but, But,

At this moment they are not. In this particular moment they are not, but they have in the past. So they have played, but they have played Altered by Mom in the past. So they have played all but they have played altered by mom in the past. And we're going to like we're going to get to your music and

what you know the new era and I'm going to play the new single. We're going to pretend it's a world premiere. I don't know if it is or not. It is. I think you got it.

OK. So I'm not going to get going. I'm going to have to lie about this. We're going to debut a song. We're going to get into the new music. Hopefully it gets on in the 88 and Edge 102 and all the places that would play Alter by Mom, but mono whales were on those stations and then they called it

quits. Do you know anything about why the mono whales called quits? I know everything, no I'm kidding. I think you know everything and right now your brain is like what am I allowed to say on this? Because Sally might hear it. No, no, no, no, not at all. You know I had a great time when I played with them and we didn't really talk a whole lot when I left. They were, you know, off winning Junos and touring the world. So yeah, honestly, like a lot of bands in Canada,

I think that it just gets really hard. I don't know specifics. I never asked, so. Okay, so you don't have any insight. I don't know specifics. I never asked so okay, so you okay? So you don't have any insight don't have any dirt for you. I'm sorry Sally did say she'll come by at some point nice Tell us what's going on, but can't no more mono whales so there is like a an alt rock can con opening I'm picking on Indy 88 because Put us in coach. Yeah. That's great.

Like I'm picking on Indie 88 because Do it. A good FOTM does like fills in on that station. So you've heard his voice quite a bit recently and we were trying to, we were discussing whether Altered by Mom is played on Indie 88 and I think they will be a lot more in the future. Yeah, it's the plan. But you got to just can con rules and you need to support local.

And I think Altered by mom is the new mono whales. Oh, you heard it here first. Wow. What do you say about that? Devin? I say we're aren't going to break up. Well, that's funny. I say you're the new mono whales. Meanwhile, mono whales, maybe possibly we don't know, but maybe they realize, oh, this is a lot of work and very expensive. And then so really we want you to be more than that. So lots to discuss in this. We're having fun. I take it as a compliment. I love They got great songs great live show. You know, the productions are sweet. I love yeah, Zach does the stuff Mm-hmm. So take as a compliment. Yeah, and hey any you heard it here any opening will fill. Yeah, that's right

You know, I put it that way have guitar will travel One more thing we talked about I wanted an update on this That's right. You know, let me put it that way. Have guitar will travel. One more thing we talked about, I wanted an update on this. So we got the ink update, which was not in the description here, but I couldn't help but notice. And I do want to ask you about your t-shirt in a moment, Gina, but we talked quite a bit about your voice over career. Can you, anything new on that front? Actually, literally yesterday, I found out that I am the new voice of

Ziploc for not only Canada but Australia too. Okay you're blowing my mind right now. The things that the sandwiches go in and go in the kids lunches? That's it, that's it. And now how did that session go when you got on with Ziploc Australia? Yeah, yeah this was actually pretty good. So I auditioned for it as you do and so I show up on the, we did it, obviously I didn't go to Australia, so we did it over zoom, uh, much to my chagrin. I would love to right now, but um, yeah. So I show up and I do the first take of, of the script and she stops me right away. And she's just like, Gina, Gina, you got the gig. Where's your accent?

You're not Australian. And I was like, I know, why don't you know that I'm not Australian? So it was a whole big thing, but uh, you know, I ended like, I know, why don't you know that I'm not Australian? So it was a whole big thing. But you know, I ended up, I was, she was nice enough to point out my North Americanisms to me. And so we resolved those and now I have a commercial in Australia. So we'll, but also in Canada, right? So like you're also, so we'll hear ziplog ads and that voice we hear will

be yours. Yeah. Yeah. That's exciting. Yeah. It's fun. It's a good little side hustle, you know? Okay. Well, so things are still rocking and rolling on the voiceover front. Definitely. Yeah. It's something that allows me to make music. You want to do voice imaging for Toronto mic'd? I feel like there could be a voice off the top. We can work something out. Announcing the number. You keep these lasagnas coming. Yeah. So just to make sure the world knows, Palma Pasta sent over a lasagna, it's in my freezer, and you're taking it home with you today.

Amazing, thank you. I've been thinking about Palma Pasta since the last time. I've been dreaming about it. You know, you can actually buy Palma Pasta. No, no, no, no, we gotta come on the back, I guess. If you're in Mississauga or Oakville, go to palmipasta.com. They're good people.

Okay, so we got the mono whales update. We got the voiceover update. I got the tattoo update. How is the beer tasting? It's great. Classic, classic Great Lakes. Gotta love some local. Yeah, I'm digging this.

It's like a New England style pale ale. The burst is good. I was at GLB like they have a brewery here in South Etobicoke. I was there drinking it yesterday. Burst. I really dig the burst. Yeah. In here. I like the octopus. Yeah, it's nice for me to have a chance.

Whenever there's an octopus likes to fight, I usually reach for that. So it's nice for me to have a chance where I can say, look, expand my horizons. Try some other. Well, it's all about that. I've been pronounced me a glub brewery. So I learned something too. When so my wife frequents this thing called the LCBO. Have you ever heard of it? Okay. So the, the kid who you saw, Morgan calls it lick bow. She's still, there's a lick bow. You know, we have, it turns out we have a lot of lick bows in this, in this, in this city. There's lots of lick bows. Your daughter knows what that's called. It's a lick bow. You can't help but make catch the lick bows. Okay I'm gonna play a song

because I think this song and again we're gonna make a bunch of noise before I play the new tune since it's a world premiere. They don't even have this on Australia yet. Okay this is a big deal. So I'm gonna play a song that kind of might represent the start of the new journey and then then I'm going to sit back and listen because I want to hear about like new journey, what's going on, and we're going to build our way towards this new song. Okay. And along the way, I'll have some annoying questions and who knows what might pop in your head here. So here's the jam that's going to start us off. Posing like a spark, like adrenaline A rush of blood to the head again

You gotta catch a wave, seize the moment Gotta spin that thread till it's golden Now I can see that you wanna count on me And it should be as easy as one, two, three Take a breath, take another one, take another one Why can't I just dive in? Why can't I take the leap? You always said that you believe in me Why am I scared? What can I do?

I look around and know that I see it's true Why can't I dive in? Why can't I just dive in? Why can't I dive in? Hey, hey, hey. This is Dean Cullen from Extraterrestrial Recording. Oh! And you're wearing an ET shirt.

An ET stands for extraterrestrial. Weird. Weird. So many things are popping in my head right now. And that's sort of like Brand Band 3000, right? Like drinking in LA. Like a tribute. Love that.

Wow. Okay, this is a catchy fucking song. Indie 88 if you're listening. Come on, get this on the playlist. These guys are a Toronto band. What's going on here? Okay. So enough of my voice. I want to hear your voice, especially miss Ziploc over here. Holy smokes. Talk to me about this, uh, new journey. Yeah, it's really exciting. So that song, it's funny. Um, when we last time we were here, I think we were like just releasing that. Yeah, I played it last time.

I was gonna say like it's not a new song because we're gonna debut the new song later. And I remember thinking, catchy as fuck back then too. Thanks, friend. Yeah, I also jumped into the ocean for this music video as well in December. So there you go. There's a trend happening. Yeah, no, this one dive in off of our latest EP,

which we released back in 2023. So it's been a minute. It's time for new stuff. We've been working really hard and I'm really excited about like, I wouldn't I want to say new direction, but it's it's we definitely like really found our sound on on this new album. So. Yeah, I think Dive In definitely represents when we kind of like, you know, you mentioned a number of artists that we work with off the top of the show. Love all those artists. I think dive in was a moment where we're

like, what if we kind of looked to ourselves first and started believing in ourselves a little bit? And what if we dived in? Yeah. Yeah. Our thing. And so for me, I think of this, I mean, it's hilarious. Like music, it's always so funny. Now, the song seems ancient to me, but it just with all the new record done, all these songs that we're just holding on to that are starting to come out. But I've been always be special to me because I think it does represent that moment when we were like, hey, what if we rolled the dice on ourselves for once in this wacky world? And it actually turned out pretty great.

Yeah it's been a whirlwind of a year. It's been very nice. So okay so I'm like I'm always interested in like some of these details. Yeah. Okay so. Give you the dirt. Yeah well I want to know like I want to live precariously through you to be quite honest. So you two live together and you make music and you work collaborate. There's a lot. We talked about Ron Hawkins and what Devin was doing there and stuff like this.

And so what with this song, you're like, Hey, like, what if we focused on altered by mom? Yeah, literally, uh, um, in 2023, I can't remember the exact time, but we were kind of like, you know, at a point in our career where we were like, what's next, you know, where, where do we go from here? And, um, so we were both kind of playing Hired Gun full time. And so we both kind of just stepped away from that for a while and really just gave ourselves a shot. We were like, we kind of looked at each other

and we're like, what if we just tried? Let's see, let's give ourselves a year or however long it takes and let's see what happens. Let's just roll the dice. We're capable. I believe in us, you know, and we had all these songs, you know, we wrote the 52 songs before that. Right.

So we were ready to, you know, kind of step forward and showcase what we're made of. And so far so good, man. So are you trying to write radio friendly singles? Like what is the goal here? Yeah, in a way, I mean, because the three songs I loaded up, so I'm listening to them before and they're catchy radio friendly songs. Yeah. And I mean, I think that there's a little bit of like a taboo if like you're like you lose some of your cred or something if you like write specifically for radio. So I don't know if we're like set out to write

like specifically for one thing or another. Like it is just kind of our artistic expression. But obviously, you know, we would love the most people to hear it possible. So in order to do that, getting on the radio is quite helpful. So that definitely is in the back of our minds. But we, we went to Vancouver, actually, for this new album. And we spent almost 10 days there. And we wrote with a bunch of our friends. And then we came back to Toronto. And we wrote with a bunch of our friends and then we came back to Toronto and we wrote with a bunch of our friends here and we just took 10 of the best songs and we put them on an album. So what is the name of the new album? So it was gonna be Cool T-Shirt. We're still gonna get to that T-shirt. We get complimented about our cool T-shirts. So that was the

original plan for the album but now it's gonna be called Better, because it's better than the last one. Yeah, and it's about getting better, and being better, and doing better, and it's better than everybody else's new album. Yeah, that's the main one. And then the follow-up has to be called Best, and then where do you go from there?

Even better. You're gonna paint yourself into a corner. Like, Bester? Bester was one of my favorite goalies growing up with the Toronto Maple Leafs, like Bester. Bester was one of my favorite goalies growing up with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Alan Bester. And I liked him because he was like five, six or something. They don't make goalies like that anymore. But back in the eighties, you could be five, six.

Small and spunky, you know? Yeah, now you gotta be like six, four or whatever or they don't even look at you or whatever. But we had like, Leafs didn't, but there was Darren Pang and all this Leafs talk, sports chatter here. But Alan Bester would be a great name, I think, for an him, but there was Darren Pang and all this Leafs talk sports chatter here. But Alan Bester would be a great name, I think, for an album like Alan Bester. And we could do like a spud web thing too, because I remember spud was short.

He was the classic dunk champion. Well, then you could do Muggsy Bogue because he was our spud web, if you want. I was going to say Bud the Spud because of the Maritimes. But, you know, I'm just going to throw that in there. Well, then you're in Stomp and Tom territory. And then we could talk about Banjo. Can I name all your albums? because of the Maritimes, but you know, I'm just gonna throw that in there. Well then you're in Stompin' Tom territory. Absolutely. And then we get to talk about Banjo-Dunk. Can I name all your albums? Like what if we do a trade?

You'll get as much publicity as you want. You can be the official House band. I get the name all your... Perfect. All your albums. Okay, so this album is going to be called Better and we're going to play that jam in a minute here. Now, I'm curious about this whole notion. now that I know who I was chatting with on blue sky It turns out this is I can attribute this quote to Devin. So You wrote We talked about dive in and it represented the start of your new journey and your new focus on your own music Which we just talked about but rather than helping out others like is that and again I'm maybe I'm reading private notes that were meant to be spoken on the podcast

But is that like you felt like you were I'm reading private notes that weren't meant to be spoken on the podcast, but is that like you felt like you were given too much of your good stuff to other musical performance? I don't know about that. And like for the record, we still love working with others, helping others. I still am recording artists and stuff. So I get fighting with good night. Yeah, we are fighting with good night sunrise and they know what they did. Yeah, they just are so great. It's a bit irritating, but you know,

let's just say I'm jealous of my friends. Yeah, that's right. No, for me, it's it's more about like I'm so grateful for the experiences that we've been able to have with other artists who have taken us, you know, all around the world, had us work on their records, do that kind of stuff. For us, it was just a time of like shifting the collaboration to slightly more of a home focus, I guess.

So, and probably worked with more people on this album than we did ever as Hired Guns or just like producing other things, just more about like expanding the circle in a way rather than producing it. And yet in a way it's like time is finite. If it wasn't, if we could do everything, I would play in everybody's band. It would be amazing. But it's, you know, as the old biological clock starts ticking, I just got to make sure I'm

doing stuff that I'm going to be stoked on. You know, Chris Murphy plays in like nine bands. Okay. So it can be done. He's got, he's twice your age. We'll get our music on the radio first and then we can go back to playing with the people. Sloan has a few radio hits. That's right. I understand. Okay. So again, we're building up to the world premiere. So that's not this. I'm going to play another song and then we're going to talk about this here. First stop, ecstasy I got a feeling coming over me

It's a hard life, I'm aware But I'm waiting on a sign that's already there So wake up, But don't be scared Cause I'm waiting on a sign that's Already there It's so tough To not be scared When I'm waiting on a sign that's Already there

And I'm waiting on a sign that's Already there Next stop everywhere I've got a feeling that I've been unfair With a sad shout, a useless prayer I am waiting on a silence already there So wake up, don't be scared Cause I'm waiting on a silence already there

It's so tough, tonight be scared I don't even want to fade it down. It is very hooky and fun and it sounds great in the headphones. You've got a fun headphone experience going here. Perks of having an engineer and producer. And you produce you produce the Altered by Ma music, Mr. Lohit. Yeah, we both produce it. I would say, yes. How do you decide who gets lead vocals like this?

I just try and give it to Devin. I usually just try and give it to Gina. Yeah, most of the new record is me now. But he has a great voice. Well, yeah, this is like a Devin Leeds. I love singing, yeah. Yeah, he's great. And then you get the call and response or whatever, then Gina shows up in my left ear. When I'm waiting on assignments already there When I'm waiting on assignments already there

Over the last couple years since you were last here, like have your songs appeared in any new TV shows I should know about? I know that you had a song on Kim's Convenience. Yeah, we ended up getting another one on Kim's convenience before it was done. There was a couple of films. Yeah, like documentaries and things. Yeah, and somebody made a movie about a murder in their house and our song was in the credits. Mm-hmm.

That's cool. Yeah. So we've had a couple of things. We recently signed with Arts and Crafts for an admin pub deal. And so hopefully some more stuff will come from that. But yeah. If you're making a movie, get in touch.

Yeah. Seriously. Okay. Now you guys, you mentioned you co-write with other bands and stuff. So who did you co-write with from Bush? Was it Gavin Rossdale? In this case, it was Nigel Pulseford. Our friend Nigel. I only know one name. My favorite guy. Yeah. Is it Gavin Ross Dale in this case. It was Nigel Pulse for Yeah, Gavin was Gavin he's a handsome guy, right he's he is a handsome guy and he you know, he still has rock star power Yeah, I

Yeah, but to me like the beating heart of that band was always Nigel who was their guitar player and was just like the most British Guy ever named Nigel who was their guitar player and was just like the most British guy ever. Named Nigel Palsford. Nigel's a very British name. Yeah, just so British. But he, yeah, we Making plans for Nigel. We kind of like reconnected during the pandemic and just proposed, we write some songs. We ended up doing two songs together, which was very cool. It was really great too, because it was during the pandemic. So we got in contact with him

and then he got in contact with us. And then we, the day we were meeting, it was kind of like a, is this going to be the right person? So we both showed up on the screen and we're like, is this you? And this is you. Who's catfishing who here?

We're not getting catfished. This is Rihanna. Maybe he only, one of my theories is he only works with really handsome guys. Wow. You just wormed your way into my heart forever. Do you think you're a partner? I'm talking with Gina. Do you think Gina, do you think your partner looks a little like Kurt Cobain? Did I ask you the last time? No, he's got a Kurt vibe going.

No, no, no. It's Garth now. Yeah, I get, I get Kurt. Or like Jay Maskus. Yeah. And Devin's played with dinosaur juniors. I get, I get Kurt, I get Garth or like Jay Maskus, which is like, and Devin's played with that as our junior. Okay. Yeah. Well I sang one song. I screamed one song. Yeah. She's marketing. She just spun that. It was a great moment. You collaborated. That's right. Asinabi. Asinabi. Oh, I butchered that. Okay. But Juno winning albums for songwriter of the year. I mean, you contributed some songs to that.

We did and we ended up with Junos ourselves. Well, we only have Junos. Well, yes, we each can technically have one, but you have to buy them yourself. So we only bought one. This is the one I'm looking for right here. This is it. So all the other, I don't want to delete it. This is where we begin. So you are eligible to receive a Juno because you wrote on an album that one songwriter of the year. Yes. But they're like not going to give it to you just because you earned it. They're going to make you pay for it. What does it cost to buy this Juno? Okay. You have to guess. What do you, what do you think it costs? 34.99. Oh, double it. It is more.

Let's just say we couldn't justify owning two. So you didn't buy it. We did buy it. We bought one. We bought one. We could have bought two. We could have bought two. But except we couldn't have bought two. But you cohabitate,

which is why we need to keep you two together. Yeah. Because if you ever, firstly, we'll have to get two Zanias. Yeah. If you don't live together and you'd have to get another Juno. That's it.

And I'm taking the Juno. So there you go. Where is it right now, this Juno? It's on our mantle and it has a little tuque on it. You have a mantle. It's wearing a little Christmas hat. Yeah. It actually comes with a little white glove.

What was the price tag of this Juno? So are we talking like 99.99? You know what they are? I have no idea what's going on. They are $700. 700 Canadian for one Juno, but they are very heavy. have no idea what's going on. So they are $700, 700 Canadian for one Juneau, but they are very heavy. Oh, they're very nice. It's a very nice statue. So you can use it as a weapon. Yeah. But that kind of sucks, right? Cause you earned it. Like, like there's no fund anywhere. You know what the Juneau is. You have to buy your own Juneau.

Like what I will say about that is it's like kind of funny to me on the one hand, why aren't you angry having like, well, because, because in some ways it's like, all we did in this case is like, we wrote some songs with a friend of ours. And it's like his, he's amazing. His team is amazing. All of that. But then I'm also like, I look at somebody like Gina who's been writing for decades and I've been writing for decades. I'm like, okay, like, sure. I'll take a little attaboy. Why not? You know, it's nice. I really,

okay, but you, you, you legitimately earned it. So when you say I got a Juno, it's fact like you earn this and they can check it out. So you're just looking for something to like show off like on your mantle or whatever. So get a knockoff, like get a fucking 3499 plastic, like a wish, like a wish Juno. It doesn't have to be a real $700 Juno because you did earn the Juno. This is just symbolic of the Juno. Go get something for 20 bucks at the Pacific mall or something.

And just be like, hey, do you want to see my Juno? It's a different shape that year. People don't ever pick it up. It's just there and it could be plastic. Don't touch it. Don't give seven. I'm upset that you, hardworking people had to cough up.

They wanted $1,400 from you. You know what's so funny? We also waited like six to eight months. I don't know. It just didn't seem to me as like, does this seem right? Does this seem right? I'm not sure. And then I was sort of convinced

by another artist friend of mine. They're like, man, some people wait all their lives for this. So I can't tell you they're gone now. No, that's not true. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. Okay. Yes. Yes. But they had a really beautiful funeral at great rates and it was so respectful and they love it. At Ridley Funeral Home. Okay. And you, the measuring tape, I don't know if you got one

last time, but that's courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home. I do always use a measuring tape. That's yours, man. It sounded sarcastic, but I'm serious. It's only 700 dollars and you can have it. What the hell is he measuring? But I want to know. Space between my tattoos. Is there any space left? I was checking out the shark like because I'm going to talk about your t-shirt now quickly because I'm going to tease it all episode and never mention it. So you're wearing an ET t-shirt but like that's the real deal right? Am I right? Yeah it's the real t-shirt. It's just a note. It's full retro, but that's from the early 80s. Yeah, this is like, it's from a thrift store.

Actually the Value Village in Brantford, if you're ever thrift hunting. No, don't give away our secrets. It's fantastic. Don't go to the Value Village in Brantford. Everybody already knows, it's fine. And they're listening, they're friends. So yeah, it's an excellent one for vintage.

I also got an X-Men t-shirt, which is like worth a little bit of money online if I wanted to sell it, because it's not like it's got like the is it worth $700 to be t-shirt for Juno. Okay. So and you, Devin mentioned that because I watched it in a drive-in theater when I was like eight years old or something. And I there's a spoiler alert if you haven't seen ET yet, but he flatlines. Okay. So eight year old Mike in the drive in, I was devastated. I start bawling. Is this triggering for you? Cause ET is dead, right? This is the Spielberg trick. Cause

you're not thinking, Oh, he's not our species. Maybe there's different rules or whatever. So you're applying your own like rule set and this thing he flatlines. He's ET is dead. They killed him. I was devastated. Like, like completely a mess. I think everybody was. I think he touched our hearts with his glowing little finger. Okay. I don't know. I'm no finish to that story. I'm still traumatized by dogs here. You've triggered me. You know, I know that's okay. Your T-shirt. Remember there being a dog in that movie little face. Oh, you know, I know that's okay Just your t-shirt remember there being a dog in that movie little face Oh, you know I there is because the dog barks in the shed Okay, okay, there's a little bit of a dog

Yeah, but that that so like I did more to earn that Juno than that dog did to go in the t-shirt But I still feel but he didn't pay seven. Yeah Yeah, I think I know the name still it's been a while since I saw but I know Elliott is the main kid. Elliott's right. And Gertie is the cute Drew Barrymore. It's Gertie. No higher. Yeah. So Gertie is the kid. That's you very much. Yeah, that's right. But that guy's name. I remember I think it's Michael because I remember thinking, oh, that's my name. Like, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I love the T-shirt. And that's who? Alf. I know alien life form. OK, Alf a cat sees from Melmac ET. I don't think it's the same species, but big elf head over here. All right. Before we get to this world premiere, you've opened for some interesting acts, but one of the acts you opened for,

he actually visited here since your last appearance. So tell me what it was like opening for Sam Roberts. I love playing with Sam anytime. Once I was lucky enough, so a buddy of ours, Josh Traeger, who plays drums in Sam Roberts band, we actually co-wrote a song, I know with a drummer, unheard of. Josh can also play, he's well rounded. But we wrote a song for the new record called Queen of My Mental Health. But before that happened happened he invited me up and I got to play on stage with them I got to play bongos for Brother Down which was a very like that's the big hit yeah brother down but it was like an extended version because

it was live yeah Devin played bongos for like six minutes on stage it was it was epic yeah and and I went out ready to like, okay, they've probably got a way they play it. I'm just going to kind of like chill. I'm going to hang back or whatever. And then we get up there and Josh looks over at me. He's like, just go, just start playing. And then, you know, we got to the way of all the good people got and I stopped. Like the song stops and he's like, no, keep jamming through that. And then, yes, I played too. I played. I don't even remember. It was all a... It was a deep... Well, and Sam gave him the big shout out.

You know, it's like, take it away. Yeah. It was great. And like, I like bongos. I don't know if I've done my 10,000 hours on them. Maybe like 8,000. He had very swollen hands. You look like a bongo player.

Yeah. I can see you being a bongo player. Okay, so Sam Roberts, who lives in Montreal. Yes, and actually gave me the goods on a great coffee shop. I have a note in my phone of my favorite coffee shops all over Canada, all over the world, but mostly in Canada. And Sam unseated Cafe Neve the last time I was there.

It was my favorite coffee shop. He's like, no, you gotta go to this other place. Which now I'm actually forgetting the name of the place. But I'm not gonna mention it. When you find the name, DM me on Blue Sky because my daughter lives in Montreal and I'll be there at some point when I pick her up to bring her home or whatever.

All right, Jimmy Eat World. Yes, that was me a long time ago, but it was a dream. I played, that was when I was playing in Hey Ocean. But that's big. And yeah, it was Jimmy Eat World, and it was City in Color. It was a very cool. In City in Color?

Yeah, that was a neat show. Dallas Green. Yep, yep, doing his thing. Wow. And yeah, it very cool. In city and color? Yeah, that was a neat show. Dallas Green. Yep, yep, doing his thing. Wow. And yeah, it's cool, it's funny. I've played with Jimmy at World twice, and this is like, I'll keep the story really short because it's a lot of inside baseball,

but for any live music nerd. I like inside baseball, keep it long. So the first time I saw Jimmy at World, they had huge amps under the stage built into these isolation boxes so they brought like all these things and it was like a very fancy guitar setup the second time I saw them it was all modelers and they did a sound check virtual sound check they didn't even leave their bus the crew just

played back their stuff from the night before it was like a big like whoa times are changing wow don't that that's wild. Okay. Good to know that. Deep, deep cut. But I like to have a couple of people out there that are like, that's really interesting. All right. Well, I find that interesting. Maybe Rob Proust will find it interesting.

He was a keyboardist for spoons and hey, I think he'll find that interesting. Okay. One last act. I'll ask you about 21 pilots. Yeah, that was probably a massive underplay. This again, this is an old band of mine. I was in like kind of a pretty big dumb rock band. See, I feel like your PR department is stretching things here because like it really does read in this bio I was I found that that yeah altered by mom open for 21 pilots.

Yeah, I think you'll find if you look farther up in that thing, it says altered by mom has played with many other acts and in that capacity they have. Yeah. So, you know, it's like, yeah, but this is also how the sausage, like I find it interesting that, you know, oh, I was, you know, it's like, oh, I jumped on stage for a bit with this thing. So yeah, altered by mom. But I just find it interesting how you can kind of take that little kernel of truth and just Just say that 21 pilots open for you. Yeah, that's it. That's it and it's gonna be that way. So there you go. Okay Amazing amazing here. So I'm kind of ready here, but I'm going to just Give you a couple of tips here one is because since you cohabitate and you don't have to give me your address

You know the docs yourself, but like what quadrant of the city, like would you give a neighborhood? Whereabouts are we living? Yeah, we're in the junction. Do I know that? I'm in the junction all the time. Oh, nice. Come on by. Yeah, come on by.

I have like a route I do, which is essentially like starting at like Dundas and Runamead. I'll take Dundas, we're at Curves, right? And then I'll take Bloor back to Runamead and then Runamead to Dundas. I're at Curves, right? And then I'll take a Bloor back to Runamead and then Runamead to Dundas. I do that walk at least once a week. Well, we walk down to High Park, like pretty much every day. So there you go.

And I will say we moved during the pandemic and it seemed very boring at first because it was the pandemic. But now there's something's happening in the strip kind of along Dundas West from, like where do we get pizza from? What's that place called? High Park. No, no, no.

Pacific. Oh, Domini's. No, no, the place where we always go to get drinks and pizza. You know, the drinks and pizza place. It's on Dundas. Yeah, so like from Botham's. And then if you've kind of followed all the way down.

You do always get Dundas. Dundas and like Roncy splits off and like all the way down to like the bell and the beacon. Yeah. That's like, there's like stuff's happening now. It's cool spot and it and that's kind of neat. So we're having a good time I missed a little Italy and Like Korea town where we've lived before when we moved, but it's like it's pretty cool I think you're in a cool spot like one day recently I was walking that very strip and then Alan's filmmaker Alan Zweig was there. He lives on Mavity or something. So it's like, it's all right there.

Yeah. We run into a bunch of musical pals all the time along there and it's, it's kind of a happening spot, you know? Yeah. I used to live on Clinton and at like Annette and then, uh, I would never mind nothing. That's not right where we live. Beatles. Okay. Like what are you afraid of? of? People are going to park at like across from Humperside Collegiate and looking for Altered by Mom. That's it. Hey, they opened for 21 Pilots. You wish, right?

That's a dream come true. Can you connect me with 21 Pilots? Yeah. I heard you opened for Jimmy Eat World. I love the middle. My goodness gracious. Okay, so now I know exactly. After I stop recording, I'll get the deets of exactly where to find you guys. Theseous. Okay. So now I know exactly what after I start stop recording. I'll get the deeds. I'm exactly where to find you guys

These walks. Okay. I like how we came on I remember this happening last time is I come on I have half a pale ale and you get all my secrets out of me Pretty quick. I gotta say you docks yourself. Yeah, okay. I would never do that to you. The junction is a big area You could have left it right right there. Okay, the new album. Oh yeah, so I was in the middle of something. Yeah, it's funny because like, this is why I don't record at night, okay? Because I started something, which is, where do you live? Because I was curious because I'm assuming you have a drawer or a closet or maybe a room full of like old cables, old electronics, old devices, right? You might have something like this, at least

a drawer or something. My worry for you too, because I care about you, is that you're going to throw it in the garbage and those chemicals are going to end up in our landfills. So my best advice to you is that you go to recyclemyelectronics.ca, put in that, I'm going to say the address right now. Just kidding. You put in the address and then you'll find out where you, you can drop that off. Maybe it's like the staples in the stockyards Mm-hmm Stockyards not far from George Bell Arena where my first born played ten years of house league hockey So it's all coming all connected here. You're getting all the scoop today

Go to recycle my electronics dot CA and a special announcement Because we have a new partner and this only works because Ziploc is our new sponsor. Just kidding, not Ziploc. But okay, I wanted to welcome, here, that's yours. I wanted to welcome Fusion Corp Developments Inc. and over the next coming weeks, I'll have more to say about the founder and CEO, Nick Ienis. He's got a book, Building Toronto's Skyline, and he's got a podcast called Building Toronto's

Skyline, and there's a whole lot more interesting stuff going on there. So I'd just like to say to Nick Aynes, welcome to the TMU, the Toronto Mike Universe. Woo! And we're going to write a song about building Toronto's Skyline. Altered by Mom is going to do that. Okay. You ready? Any words to say before I press play on this world premiere

of this new song? Are you ready to suck on a lemon? You wanna watch us as we walk through the fire? We'll never stop or know, we'll never get tired He sips his drink like he's too cool for school Look, there's a sad guy over there Wants to dance but doesn't care And he's never smooth and he's too cool for school Look there's a sad guy over there Wants to dance but doesn't care And he's never smooth and he's never rough And he never gives in but he always gives up

With his arms crossed, tight like a bow Hugging himself cause he loves what he knows EVERYTHING! Don't you agree? Little color me, little color me Can't you have just one good day? Why do you even come if you hate it all anyway? Say what you want, you'll be that guy

We'll keep the party till the day that we die What's in your mouth, you can't reply Honey, let's go sweet while yours not sucking on a lemon You gotta get your piece, take what you deserve How dare you come at me, boy, you've got some nerve Can't break the tension, can't look me in the eye Your face so sour, boy, you're just so And he's never weak, and he's never tough And he never gives in, but he always gives up

With his arms crossed, tight like a bow Hugging himself, cause he loves what he knows Everything! Don't you agree? But he always gives up with his arms crossed Tight like a bow, hugging himself cause he loves what he knows Everything! Don't you agree? We don't call him A, we don't call him B Can't you have just one good day? You still melt while we make lemonade!

Say what you want, you'll be that guy We'll keep the party till the day that we die What's in your mouth? You can't be blind Honey, where's the sweet mouth? You're still sucking on the lemon Sucking on the lemon Sucking on the lemon Where's the sweet mouth? You're still sucking on the lemon Come on! Let's just leave our hearts to Suck it up, up, up, up!

Suck it up, up, up, up! Suck it up, up, up, up! Suck it up, up, up, up! Why do you even come if you hate it all when you watch? Say what you want, you'll be that guy We'll keep the party till the day that we die What's in your mouth? You can't reply Honey, rest asleep while yours does

Say what you want, you'll be that guy We'll keep the party till the day that we die Woo! Love it! Catchy, fun, good stuff. Okay, so give me the story on Sucking on a Lemon. Like, give me the behind the scenes story there. Yeah, so this is the thing too, I just want to say before I tell you about that, is just because when you play with other bands, it's like, we don't get to do that.

You know what I mean? When we're playing in Hard Guns. So that was the main thing of us breaking out on our own. We just wanted to make music that we wanted to play. So this song specifically was the beginning of our writing journey with a guy named Tom Darcy. And so we were friends of friends and we got together and he was like, hey, you guys want to write?

So we wrote this song in like, what, two hours? It was like 45 minutes. And then we tracked it in total like it happened fast. And we were like, oh, yeah. And that vocal take is like the scratch take, like as we wrote it, like we were just firing on all. Well, your scratch take. Yeah, right.

I read it, but yours were totally killer. So we were writing the song and we had kind of like a little bit of a riff going on and we were bouncing around ideas and I was like, it sounds like, it sounds like it should be like, da da da da da da, like sucking on a lemon and both Tom and Devin were like yes that and so we just kind of went with that and so the idea of the song is that you know whenever you go to a show Mike I'm sure you've seen there's always somebody standing there with their arms crossed

oh yeah that's me so I'm talking about me and it's just kind of a funny way to be like why did you come if you didn't want to have a good time? And so it's sort of a, and that's kind of a whole MO of Altered by Mom is like, you know, where everything has a little bit of tongue and cheek, everything's, you know, a little, little kind of joke in there, a little poke and fun and everything. So that's, that's part of it.

Yeah. And to clarify, you can come to our show and just stand there. You don't have to be like rocking out or losing it. We're not going to be mad. We specifically are addressing like certain music industry types that are just like, why did I even have to come to this event? And there's the real talk.

He's right. You have half an IPA and it starts to come out. Well, maybe not industry, but like, you know, just people who everyone in the industry don't work with us. I hate you industry. No, not at all. Not at all.

It was, I don't remember which big label was looking at them. Now I can't remember Warner. I can't remember now, but they all wore t-shirts that said corporate rock socks. Yeah. And these guys were sucking on a lemon. They like, they weren't there for that. But see, we all know, you know exactly what we mean, right? When we say it. So that's, that's sort of what it is,

which is fun. And you know what? The crowd super gets into it. We've been playing it live for a little while. We have like a little choreography moment that we do. So if you've been to our show, you know, there are little moves that we do. And yeah, it's it's a whole lot of fun. It's great. And I can see a future where unless it's banned, you guys like there'll be tick tock trends where that somebody has that sour puss look on their face. And the soundtrack to it will be sucking on a lemon. Sucking on a lemon.

And then you know, you can fill that in with a whole bunch of other things, you know, can I eat lasagna? Okay, listen, that's, you're the, you're doing the voiceovers for Toronto Mike House. Drinking at the lager. You're gonna have to. Right, thanks for it.

Yeah, amazing, amazing. Eating some lasagna from Palma's Kitchen in Mississauga, Oakville. In Mississauga. What was the Weird Al Yankovic parody song? Oh, it was Tla Bamba, but it was La La La Lasagna. That's so good. I didn't realize Weird Al was doing parodies

until like a week ago. I just thought he was a very prolific, thoughtful artist. Yeah. That's funny. That's funny. I can't name names. I guess I could name names, but I won't name names. But there is an FOTM. So your episode 1613 or something like that. But

there's an FOTM who is like when back in the day when everybody was single, okay, everybody was single. I feel like that's a caveat here. But when Weird Al would come to Toronto, his attic rep would make sure he had time alone with this FOTM. Like this was like Al's special Toronto friend. That's the kind of rock and roll dirt I'm looking for right there. That's pretty good. Should I have a good one? Should I have a good one at the time with Weird Al? I don't know. We opened for Weird Al.

Yeah, actually I think you'll find in our bio, which is all true, asterisk. Nothing is real. Nothing is real. Okay. So shout out to Weird Al Yankovic and shout out to Dr. Demento because again, I got a few decades on you guys, but I would listen to the Dr. Demento show on Sunday nights on Chum FM, believe it or not. And Dr. Demento would play a lot of Weird Al. Nice. So that was like my intro to Weird Al Yankovic. Okay. Do you know Weird Al? Can you set me up with weird? I want Weird Al on Toronto Mic.

That's what I'm looking for. So the album's called Better. It's the ten best songs you wrote in the last, since this epiphany you all had? Yeah, I mean, I don't want to say best songs, but they were the songs that we felt kind of made a sort of a cohesive record. And it is, it does kind of have a through line as you listen to the whole thing, which is really great. And yeah, I don't know. I'm really proud of it. I think it's the best thing we've, we've made in a really long time and I'm stoked for people to finally hear it.

It's the purest expression of what we wanted to do. I think we like set out to do something. Yeah, we had big dreams and then with a lot of help from our friends, a lot of collaborating, a lot of freaking work that we did, We pulled it off and I'm so stoked. And it's like, all right, I have to let you in on something, though. Yes, I can't go in. So I have a laptop upstairs where I was testing to see that live dot Toronto, Mike dot com was live because we're live at live dot Toronto, Mike dot

com. There's good people there like J. Ho. And I left my laptop open to come down and record. And I just saw myself because I'm logged in upstairs. It's trying to make Toronto Mike just right now, message that Morgan is the best. Like on the live stream. So I was sitting here and you were saying something so profound and so remarkable, Devin.

I was like, oh, this is interesting. But then I was so distracted that I'm reading myself. I'm like, I didn't write. Then I had a moment. I did have a moment where I was like, did I write that? You're like, well, she is the best. So I did I write that? And it was like, oh, I see what happened. She saw the laptop was open and eight year old Morgan wrote Morgan is the best. So

Toronto mic is really just AI. And, uh, but there's that one moment where you're like, did I write that? Right. And now it's like, okay, that's how I feel about our band bio, actually, now that you mentioned it, I have a question about the band bio. Since you just mentioned it here. Okay. Because I was asking you earlier like how do you decide who's going to sing lead vocals for Altered by Mom but the bio I read says this and tell me who wrote it or okay Altered by Mom is a female fronted positive vibes alt rock band from Canada female fronted yeah of course if you've seen us on stage, I can hold my own. I'm an expert in being on stage. I can now confidently say after several decades

and it is a super treat for me to support Gina in any endeavor she has because she is literally the best. It's like it makes it so easy. It's beautiful. That's nice. Well, it's real. I mean, I'm not even kidding. It's like so easy for me to be like, oh, our band is the best. You should see what Gina is capable of. I will also say one of the reasons that I'm glad that we're sort of pursuing our band instead of doing hard gun stuff, which again, loved, but is that I was never really like the most confident to go after it and to be like, I can do that.

I can be a front person. I can do that. And you know, with people like Devin and all of our friends and things now, I feel like I can do that. And this is sort of, it's late, but it's my moment and I'm really excited about it. It's our moment, you know, like together,

like with Devin, I feel like I can do anything. So. It's more of a tribute to the people that we've played with. Yeah, like they've inspired us. Like Sky is inspiring. Evan is inspiring. Like everybody in Haywish is inspiring. My rock band is a different story.

That was maybe less inspiring, but you know, you learn stuff, right? So. Yeah, exactly. Is it fair to say that you're now Canada's best known musical power couple? Absolutely. Definitely. And we are the move over a Chantelle and rain. Get the fuck out of our way. Chantelle's been here since your last visit. Yeah. And I called her Chantelle and she said, is Chantelle,

you should tell her we say hi. Yeah. For sure. You should tell her we said, look out. Because we're coming. And did you know, well, I'm going to tell her to move over. Sorry, I have to read it properly. Canada's best known musical power couple is here. It's Gina Kennedy and Devon Lohed. Okay. And where can one get better?

And that sounds like I'm asking where you can get better. You got practice, right? You'll go to therapy. It's easy. Yeah. You become alter by mom. Uh, no. So it's going to be available everywhere. We're going to have vinyls this time. This is our first time printing vinyls for alter by mom, which is really exciting. Um, but it's going to come out later this year. So the first single is dropping on January 17th and you can get that everywhere. You can pre-save it now. That's sucking on a lemon. That's the one. Yeah. Okay, so we just got the world premiere

and people, this is all happening like, and I'm trying to do math on the days by like in a little over a week. That's right. It's all happening. You heard it here first. And until about an hour ago, I thought maybe, just maybe Gina Kennedy

was sliding into my DMs and to get this wrong again. And now I find out that didn't happen at all. Devin is the sliding DMer. Slice, okay, so. He's a slippery little pickle, this guy. Whoa. Hey, I'm a slippery medium sized pickle. Sorry, of course.

That's what the measuring tape is for. That's right, we'll find out what size you are. Well, I think it was because this is like. Okay, hot down here. I'm gonna stop the recording now. We were on, I was messing around on blue sky and I believe that I had said something to you. Yeah, I'm being measured now. I believe I had said something to the effect of like, I like it when a job

matches a person's name, like, you know, like a, like a drummer named Tom or like a radio host named Mike or something. And you liked it. Oh, I, yeah. Cause I think that's a good, yeah. Which I took as an invitation to just invite us right over to your basement and eat more lasagna. So thank you for having us. And also what might happen is cause what I do is I do an on this day thing,

right? So, uh, your, your anniversary was recently. So I probably tagged you on a, uh, on this day in 2023, altered by mom made their Toronto mic debut or something. It's actually beautiful to see for me to be able to look back and say like, okay, in the past two years, cause you're sure it would have been one of the first things we did when we were like, let's do Walter by mom and let's, you know, really try and push it. When our bio was much less impressive. Yeah.

You were not a, hold on, let me get this right. You were not a female fronted positive vibes, old rock band from Canada. That's right. That's a recent development. Yeah, it is. And you know, I should say also a big thing in our, what a nice big change for us has been finding our drummer who is Max Trefler. Yeah. We're a trio now functionally and Max is the best. This guy's getting a raw deal because he just spent an hour talking about this dynamic power duo. There's a third member of this band.

Yeah, but you know, it's the drummer's role to be the quietest and also the loudest, you know? And also the most handsome. Oh, so handsome. So talented. Probably the most talented. Gavin Rossdale, your drummer? Can I ask you, Dev, now that I know you're behind the blue sky, and by the way, thank you for being on blue sky because I fucking hate the app formerly known as Twitter and I used to fucking love.

Yeah, me too. Yeah, it's hard. It's like, we can't even look at, I try to look at note. I try to look at notifications because people will ask me questions, tag me on whatever. So I try to go with once a day I'll pop and see that. And definitely people are like Simon Dingley, just seven people are DMing me on Twitter, like it's email or something. So once a day I pop in to see that, but I cannot look at my feed. Yeah.

But I'm glad you're on Blue Sky. I'm trying. It's like, it's hard. It feels like there's definitely less of an audience there, but maybe. But it's a better audience. It's a better audience. And they're all human. Yeah.

I can tell. Like they're real. Yeah, so far. Yeah, it's early days. Except for me. So can I ask you a question, Devin, just before we wrap up? Hit me. You, you, I wanted to say you tweeted this, but you posted on Blue Sky. I'm always thinking about the time I tracked a keys player who had the most unbelievable feel I'd ever heard after the session. I realized that I had accidentally left the audio buffer set to 2048 the whole time. I just want you to explain what that means.

Like I know what you were talking about. Of all the absolutely brilliant blues guide that I have skied. There's been many. Or I've blue. That's the only one I was interested in. Yeah. Yeah. So this one, this is another, this is even dorkier than the other thing.

And so like. She wants the password for your blues guy. Yeah. No, I don't. Yeah. So like basically what this means is when you're sky account. Yeah, I don't. Yeah. So, so like, basically what this means is when you're, when you're recording, like when you're recording right now, should I be recording? It's when we are finally are recording.

So when, when you're recording on a computer, yeah. Basically you're kind of always have fighting this balance between your audio buffer, which is how long it takes between what you do and what you hear, uh, and your computer processor power. And so squiggly lines. Exactly. And so in waveform. Yeah. So in this case, I had been mixing a song where I was using a lot of plugins, that sort of stuff. And so I had to favor the computer power. But what that means is if I tried to record something, I would play it,

and it would get recorded way later Because you need more like CPU power you need more CPU power to get that buffer and that cost more than a Juno That's well, it does barely though So all that happened was I was tracking this keys player that just had this unbelievable is just like lazy vibe II feel it was so perfect and After the session I checked and what it meant was that he probably was quite actually it was very Very rushed in his actual playing he was probably playing too fast in a lot of like two ahead of the beat but because of this buffer which is like

2048 that's like two seconds. Well, that's the part I did. Cause what you're saying actually makes sense to me because I am recording many times through the day, but that 2048, I didn't know what that meant. Yeah. That was just the maximum. I had it at the maximum buffer size. It's actually, she fell asleep. I think she was like, this is the most boring conversation. Well, I get ruined or perfect hour.

I will confess. You caught me again. I was like, well, my brilliant little witticisms on here don't seem to be getting too much traction. I'm like, I wonder if I can get some niche, yeah, like some nerdy, producer talk going or something. I'm like, you're just trying to get Rob Proust to apply to you. Blue sky and stuff all day long. But you know, I want to be a little bit like, first of all,

I want to save the world from every little thought that's in my head. And so this was one where I'm like, maybe somebody will ask me about this on a podcast. Well, it worked. It worked. We just spent minutes on it. I don't think you have it open there, but you should we should read one more random blue sky. No, my producer says I need to stop talking about your blue sky account. So here in the closing, because I'm going to play actually, it's funny, I dropped that name Rob Proust because he's the only keyboardist I know, but I dropped his name and he just covered Rosie and grave from Shakespeare, my butt, which is my closing theme. But he

covered it for my new closing theme, which then he added Easter eggs at the end. So we'll listen together and we'll see if you can identify what these Easter eggs are, your demo like this is a Gen X thing. And I think I'm looking at millennials, but maybe there you maybe you're even younger, you know, maybe just a good skin cream or something, I don't know. So that will be the fun we have at the very end. So this is the part just before I start playing the outro. It's like whatever you want.

Is there anything you wanted to share when you were driving here from the junction and then you can do it now? Yeah. I mean, just that the fact that our new song's coming out, it's a whole new era. Give us a follow at How Can We See You Live? We're going to have lots of stuff coming up this summer. Can't announce anything yet, but there's lots of stuff behind the scenes. Um, there's a festival coming up in April that we're going to be playing, um,

as well as, um, we're going to go out to Nova Scotia again. So yeah, we got all kinds of dates are always on. Can I come to Nova Scotia with you? Please do. Yeah. Yeah. Let's book you in. You go out there in a whole province of people who are all honest. Oh, you look horrible today. How do you say care? Care. There you go. I do know, I do notice that I'm born from here, but sometimes I do slip into like an East Coast accent. The bayan bay. I know that this is not like not the Maritimes, but screech.

Yeah. So this is not the Maritimes. This is a mistake. Toronto people make. I also guess that before you grabbed it. Yeah, you did guess that before you grabbed it. But people in Toronto think, not all people, but many people in Toronto think that Newfoundland and Labrador is part of the Maritimes. I know better. Well done. They're Atlantic Canada. The Atlantic provinces. Where are you from again?

I'm from Pichu County. So I'm from... Which is Nova Scotia. Which is Nova Scotia. Which is the... Is that where Anne-Marie is from? She is from very close to where my folks live right now actually. She's from Salt Springs.

Okay. But I grew up in a small place called Abercrombie, which is in between Pictou and Glasgow. We actually opened for Anne-Marie. Yeah. It's in her bio. See, I don't believe you. Anne-Marie is too good to... Come on.

So the lesson here, Mike, is that we're very cheeky individuals. Woo! Okay. Any last words from you, Devin? Good. Come on. So the lesson here, Mike, is that we're very cheeky individuals. Woo. OK. Any last words from you, Devin? Obviously I wanted to find out, like, if you were going to announce a tour date, but it sounds like you just teased it again. So I'll have to get you back. Yeah, it's we're just like, we're at such a complicated time where like the album is I want to put out the album. It's got to roll out. Just trust it says. And what does that mean in 2025 releasing an album? Like, it's not like I'm going to go to Sam the Record Man

and buy a CD or whatever. Yeah. I mean, we'll have that too. I I'll say like, yeah, but you buy it online, right? You can buy it at the musicals too. You can buy it at the concert. So you can go to Sunrise in Cloverdale and buy this album? We'll be able to once the vinyl's done. I know the manager there.

Let me know if you want to talk to Robert Lawson. Oh. Indeed. Well, that's a good name. I had a teaching assistant named Robert Lawson when I was at Queens University. I wonder if it's the same guy. Okay, maybe it's a good name. I had a teaching assistant named Robert Lawson when I was at Queens University. Okay, maybe the same guy. This Robert Lawson just wrote a book on little Stevie from the E Street band. And he previously, the way I got to know him is he previously wrote a book about the guess who.

Okay, I mean that sounds big. You know what, you're actually, to be honest, I'm not trying to be critical. I consider myself an amateur comedian. Two beats too slow on that like two beats too late I'll fix it in post if you would nobody will know but yeah Robert Lawson is like the official fact-checker of the Toronto Mike podcast And he's at Sunrise at Clifton. Wow, you didn't fire your fact checkers like this Very topical. Well in in Trump's Canada, you can hear all about alter by mom at alter by mom calm On Instagram, which everywhere were altered by mom It's very easy come on to blue sky and be part of my little experiments of

Follow altered by mom. Did you did you have your domain name? We just said altered by mom. Yeah. Yeah You should change your blue sky handle to your domain name. Oh, put the dot com in. Because I'm torontomike.com on blue sky. It's kind of a way to be verified as, oh, you're official because you have access to the domain name. Yeah, that's not a bad idea. It's easy to do. Tell the world. Yeah.

I don't know who's the webmaster, Gina or... That term, by the way, antiquated term. I think I'm the web master. I'm the web mistress is what I try and be. That's the new term, web mistress. So here, so you're in the background. I'm going to read a little extra and we'll talk about the Easter eggs. But this is the Rob Proust cover of Rosie and Grey from Lois at the Low

off of their sensational 1991 album that I still love called Shakespeare My Butt. And this, yeah, it's just Rob on his keys. I love it. Just doing his thing. Such a good song. And that... Is coming up. Brings us to the end of our 1613th show.

Go to torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. Much love to all who made this possible. That is Great Lakes Brewery. Palma Pasta. Don't leave without your lasagna. I'll get Morgan to get it for you because she wants to meet this rock star to my left, not you, Devin. Sorry, Devin. Sorry, Devin. I'm cool with it. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, Building Toronto Skyline, welcome Nick to

the Toronto Mike Universe, and Ridley Funeral Home. We literally just recorded a new episode of Life's Undertaking, which is Brad Jones' excellent podcast. He was here just before you got here. You can listen to that new episode right now. See you all next week when my guest, I have to check my calendar. Oh, Chuck the security guard, you're too young. But Chuck the security guard, you know, I'm like, you millennials don't know Chuck the fucking security guard. Chuck the security guard, my next guest on Toronto Mike. See you all then.

We're gonna listen to these Easter eggs, which are coming soon. I realize he does another round. So we can talk over this, you know. What does your shirt say? Mine says Kamiko and it's actually a cat who put out a heavy metal record during COVID. Shout out to Paul Mack who is that cat's owner.

And Kamiko is called Social Distance. Yeah, very cool. And the cat is the singer in the metal band. Yeah, he only did a couple of shows though, Kamiko. He's retired now. Yeah. Yeah. And the cat is the singer in the metal band. Yeah. He only did a couple of shows though, Kimiko. He's retired now. Yeah. Yeah. Right?

Yeah. Retired if you know what I mean. Yeah. Well, shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. That's what we say. Yeah. But the E.T. shirt that Gene is wearing, I feel like there's a tribute to Jaws on your arm or am I reading too much into that?

Hey! There we go. I call her Pinky. But this is all Steven Spielberg movies. There we go, apparently I'm obsessed. Okay, ready to name the Easter eggs? Okay. You'll never get this, you're too young,

but do you know what this is? Do do do do do. This is my favorite show as a kid, this is The Friendly Giant. Yeah, The Friendly Giant, I know that, look up. Look way up. Okay, do you know this? The pizza nova. Okay, what's this?

Well, they're more like dudes. Yeah,. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah. That's Romantic Traffic by Spoons. Yes. Which Rob Bruce co-wrote. What's this? Oh, The Office. No. Good try.

That was shadowy men on a shadowy planet. Yes. Having an average weekend, which is the theme song for Kids in the Hall. The Kids in the Hall theme song? Oh, that's right. See you all next week. Bye. See you all next week, bye!

Love you.